Hand of the day #281
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff In action here against France in the McConnell...
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
One of my colleagues at world championships for many years, the distinguished New Zealand player and administrator John Wignall, found this nice play in four hearts.
Opening Lead: ♦Q
Before you look at the play, consider what material you wish to use for your 10th trick. A squeeze seems unlikely; so how will you utilize those club spots to produce an extra trick?
The defenders started normally enough by leading a top diamond rather than a spade. Declarer won in hand, drew trumps, and now exited with a spade to East.
A club shift would have been immediately fatal, so East could do nothing but play off the three top spades. When West discarded, that marked him as having been dealt a 2-1-6-4 shape.
Now all Wignall needed was for West to hold the club ace. He ruffed the third spade and led out his penultimate trump, dummy still having three diamonds and three clubs. What five cards was West to keep? If he kept two diamonds and three clubs, declarer would pitch a club from the board. Then he would ruff out the diamonds and use the club queen as an entry to North’s winner. By contrast, if West pitched a club, then declarer would lead to the ♣Q and duck a club on the way back. West’s ace would fall on empty air.
Either way, declarer was home, for a game swing to his side when the line was missed in the other room.
Bid with the Aces
Answer: 3♣
Partner has shown clubs and spades and a good hand — and no interest in defending facing heart length or he would have doubled. You have useful cards for partner in each of his suits so should bid, not pass; and since your partner’s clubs should be longer than his spades, you should bid three clubs now.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
I know I need to work on opponent card distribution, but I'm not there yet! When I look at the hand of the day, I see an "obvious" line of attack that also requires the Ace to be in West's hand, but with no counting. What am I missing?
I count losers and see clubs is one (gulp, maybe two), and two spades. That works for me as long as I can trump the third spade -- which is obvious, but I got confused.
So, I took out two rounds of hearts, leaving one on the board. Then played spades, but East does not play a third round of spades. Instead, shifts to clubs and I'm home free because West inserts the Ace on that lead.
I tried it again, realizing I could draw three rounds of hearts first, exited with a spade, and East cooperated with a club lead after two rounds of spades. Why did the computer lead clubs? This took away incentive to track distribution.
I see the advantage in knowing the distribution. How do I practice distribution counting?
This seems to happen too often: dummy does not hold the 3 of diamonds and the 3 of clubs, West does.
with six points pass is the only option at the two level